John Mica: “I come before theHouse once again, I intent to come before theHouse as many times as it takes, to see what we can do as…”

“I come before theHouse once again, I intent to come before theHouse as many times as it takes, to see what we can do as a Congress, as a Nation, as parents, as concerned citizens to see how we can stem the drug epidemic in this country. I cannot think of any greater failure of an administration in my lifetime then the failure of this current administration in addressing and in fact ignoring the problem of drug abuse and drug misuse. It is a very documentable history. It is a story that began in 1992, and we see the results today in our communities and our streets and our schools and in our homes. What is interesting to note with this chart that I brought here today is the use of illegal drugs and the history of our efforts in that war on drugs. In 1980, we see where President Reagan took over and said, just say no. And his wife, Nancy Reagan, said, just say no, and provided the leadership to this Nation and to our young people and said, drugs are the wrong way to go. We see the chart from 1980 going down and then we see President Bush and Mrs. Bush, and they continued that policy of just say no, that drugs will destroy lives and drugs will destroy our young people. Then we see 1992, and the latest statistics are absolutely astounding. We see 1992, when President Clinton took office and he first fired the drug czar. Then he hired Joycelyn Elders, our chief health officer for this Nation, who said, just say maybe, maybe take drugs, kids.…”